Stoppering and the like machines having hydraulic moving and locking means



March 6, 1951 R. DETREZ STOPPERING AND THE LIKE MACHINES HAVING HYDRAULIC MOVING AND LOCKING MEANS Filed Aug. 30, 1945 llirlllllll D u ezzfizi Patented Mar. 6, L951 OFFICE STOPPERING AND THE LIKE MACHINES HAVING HYDRAULIC LOCKING MEANS Ren Dtrez, Nogent-sur-Marne, France Application August so, 1945, Serial No. 613,665 In France July 7, 1944 Section 1, Public Law 690, August s, 1946 Patent expires July 7, 1964 Claims.

This invention relates to the up-and-down and to-and-fro motions in machines effecting operations such as corking, setting, punching and the like, on vessels, bottles or other objects while the latter are supported by the said machines.

In certain of the above mentioned machines it is necessary to wedge, lock or brake either the part supporting the object on which the operation is efiected, the working part'which efiects the said operation or a part which is fast with either of said other parts.

This wedging, looking or braking operation may be necessary in order that the object on which a stress is exerted does not recede or yield back under said stress, in the case of a bottle when it is bein corked on a' corking machine, or in order that the part or organ exerting said stress undergoes no reaction in either direction at the moment when said stress is produced, which can also be the case for a corking head having a to-and-fro movement with respect to the vessel at the'moment when the cork is driven into the bottle with such a corking head.

On the other hand, in certain machines, as for example machines for setting caps or so-called crown-corks, it is necessary to insure a pressure of the order of 250 to 300 kilograms on the vessels or bottles to be capped at the moment of the setting of their cap, and thus when a defective bottle breaks at the moment of said setting, if its support comprises a compensating and wedging spring, said spring is suddenly released and violently scatters pieces of glass with obvious dangerous and harmful effects on persons in the vicinity of the machine.

Lastly, in most of the above mentioned machines which efiect operations on bottles or vessels which may comprise substantial difierences in height between one another, it may be necessary to compensate said differences while effecting the operations with the same efiiciency on formed. This result being obtained by means of MOVING AND I a member by which the conduit for the passage of the liquid under consideration, between the piston moving in the corresponding cylinder and the source of pressure is closed temporarily and at the desired moment.

In case it is the working member, for example, a corking head, to which an up-and-down movement is imparted with respect to the vessel or to the object to be treated, said results are equally obtained by means of a member so actuated that the passage of the liquid delivered by the piston actuated by the liquid under pressure is stopped under the same conditions.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and by way of simple non-limitative examples, forms of execution of the invention will be described hereinafter and which forms are shown digrammatically in the appended drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a partial elevational sectional view showing the application of the invention to a bottle corking machine in which the vessel to be corked is placed on a support to which an upand-down movement is imparted with respect to p be applied to other machines efiecting' one or.

more operations on an object or workpiece while the latter is supported by a component of the machine, regardless of whether rectilinear or rotary motion is imparted to one or more heads or whether the movement is uninterrupted or intermittent or whether the hydraulic cylinders rotate or are stationary.

Likewise, in the machines as shown, it has been supposed that the liquid'under pressure alternately arrives on each side of the piston to be actuated, but the invention is also applicable to machines in which the liquid under pressure exerts said pressure only on one side of the piston in question.

In the corking machine shown in Figure 1 the bottle rises under the corking head in order to be corked, the support for said bottle being actuated by a hydraulic piston and a sealing device of the type considered in the present specification being interposed in the pipe line supplying the liquid under pressure feeding the cylinder in which the piston in question slides.

In a corking machine as illustrated in Figure 2 the corking head is movable with respect to a bottle support and with respect to the bottle to be corked that is in position on this support. The corking head is actuated by a piston moving in a cylinder and respective inlet and outlet lines communicate with the cylinder. In the arrangement of this figure a sealing member of the type under consideration is interposed in the conduit controlling the passage of liquid under pressure at the inlet side of said cylinder and another similar sealing member is mounted in the passage or conduit constituting the outlet side of the cylinder.

In Figure l the bottle I is the vessel to be corked, 2 is the support or table which is rigid with the piston 3 sliding in the hydraulic cylinder 4. The pipe line communicates with a source of fluid under pressure and supplies the underside of said cylinder and the pipe line 6 supplies the top of said cylinder.

The bottle I is shown at the moment when it is about to receive the cork 1 which will be driven in by the piston 8. The spring biased sealing piston 9 has not yet blocked the passage of the liquid through the pipe line 5 to the cylinder 4 and the liquid under pressure maintains the bottle pressed with its neck against the centering cone'under the corking head I9. I

As soon as the beak or high point of cam ll contacts the head of the sealing piston 9 it will shift the latter which will then close the conduit for the passage of the liquid at the point 12. The portion of liquid on the underside of piston 9 will therefore be confined and, since liquids are practically non-compressible, the cork can be driven into the bottle I without the latter and its support 2 yielding back under this stress.

The portion of confined liquid on the underside of said piston 3 is no longer subjected to any inflow pressure and if the bottle breaks when being corked no releasing of the bottle support 2 can occur as could be the case if the wedging of the bottle I were effected by a spring or by a compressed air actuated piston. In this manner, if a bottle breaks no pieces of glass will be vio-' lently scattered and therefore there is no danger of the operator near the machine being hurt.

In Figure 2 the bottle I is the vessel to be corked. 2' is its support which is stationary. Therefore, the piston 3' is not connected to said support but it is rigid with the corking head It) towhich, accordingly, an up-and-down movement is imparted. The piston 3 slides in the cylinder 4'.

The pipe line 5 supplies the underside of said cylinder?! and the pipe line 6' supplies the top of said cylinder. As in Figure 1, the bottle is sh'own'at the moment when its cork 1 is about to be driven in by the piston 8.

In Figure 2 the sealing means shown by way of example are controlled valves 9' and 9" which are biased.- Said valves are shown at the moment when they have just been closed before the driving in of the cork. As soon as this operation will have been achieved the cams II and l I" will open the sealing valves 9' and 9" and the liquid will then be able to flow further.

As in Figure 1 the portion of liquid on the underside of the sealing valve 9' will be confined and, since liquids are practically non-compressible, the driving in of the cork into the bottle I can occur without the corking head tending to yield back or recede at the moment of this driving in.

In the case of this machine in which the work- '4 ing head moves down towards the vessel or bottle to be corked, the portion of liquid comprised between the sealing valve 9" and the piston 3 will also be confined and for the same reason, that is, the non-compressibility of liquids, any untimely downward movement of the corking head will be rendered impossible, even in the event of a bottle breaking.

It is therefore to be noted that in this class of machines both sealing means are desirable but not indispensable, the sealing member mounted in the passage of the delivered liquid being occasionally sufficient. In case both combined sealing means are used, the closing of said means will preferably be effected simultaneously.

It results from the above disclosure that the device according to the invention comprises interesting peculiarities and more particularly is such that:

(a) In instances including an up-and-down movement of the object on which an operation is to be effected with respect to the'working member, the support for the object is locked so that said support cannot recede when it undergoes the stress which is imposed upon it.

(b) It is possible to elTect this locking when the object in question and the member which supports it have reached the desired height whatever said height may be within the limits allowed by the capacity of the machine to which the device is applied. I

(c) In instances including an up-and-down movement of the working member with respect to the object on which the operation is to be effected, it is possible to lock both on the one hand, the downward movement of said member when the latter arrives into contact with the object in question, in order to release said object from the resting pressure of the working member and to prevent the downward movement of the latter in case the object in question accidentally breaks, and, also, the upward movement of said working member under the influence of the reaction produced by the driving in of the cork.

(d) It is possible to effect this locking under the same conditions as exist when it is the object to which the up-and-down movement is imparted, that is to say when the working member has reached the required heightr whatever the latter may be-with respect to the object on which the operation is to be effected.

(e) In both cases, movement of the object towards the working member or movement of the latter towards the object, it is possible: to maintain th supported object locked between its support and any resting piece, for instance, a bottle between its support and the centering cone for centering its neck while avoiding any pressure on the object or bottle between these elements, and it is also possible to eliminate any release, whatever it may be, in case the object under consideration breaks at the moment when it undergoes the stress required by the operation to be performed thereon. This is due to the fact that, in the instant case the liquid under pressure can no longer exert its action upon the piston rigid with the support of the object-since it is separated by the sealing means and in the second instance the piston is locked between two sealing means so that during the locking period the working member can .not move'in either direction.

(1) It still offers the advantage that it makes it possible to use a liquid under a small pressure for actuating the up-and-down motion, even in the case of an important stress exerted on the 2,5iifh 51 treated object during the operation which it undergoes, said stress exerted on the object or on the working member being supported not by the liquid which is still under pressure but by the same liquid confined and" separated from any flowing conduit.

Of course, the above mentioned sealings of the passages of the liquids occur ,in due time, that is to say shortly before the achievement of the: operation to be performed on the object under consideration and, on the other hand, the said sealing ceases as soon as said operation is effectuated.

It is also obvious that it will be possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, to devise other forms of execution, improvements in the details or the use of equivalent means. Thus, the sealing means may be of any kind provided they are efiicient and they may be constituted by valves, sliding valves of a cylindrical or fiat form or the like, by cocks or by any other member, and said member may be actuated by any suitable means as: cams, sloping surfaces, electromagnets and the like.

I claim:

1. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a valve in said conduit, and locking means for automatically closing said valve during operation of the reciprocable stoppering head.

2. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a valve in said conduit controlling back flow from the hydraulic cylinder through the conduit, a stem on said valve, a rotatable cam in contact with the outer end of said stem, and a spring surrounding said stem and biasing same against the cam, said cam holding the valve closed during the working stroke of the stoppering head.

3. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a second conduit for removing exhaust fluid from said cylinder, a valve in said first conduit, and locking means for automatically closing said valve during the operation of the reciprocable stoppering head.

4. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a second conduit for removing exhaust fluid from said cylinder, a valve in said first conduit, a stem on said valve, a rotatable cam in contact with the outer end of said stem, and a pering head; a pair of conduits connected to the opposite ends of said cylinder for respectively and alternatively conducting fluid under pressure to the opposite sides of said'piston, valves interposed in each of said conduits, and locking means for automatically closing said valves during the working stroke of the reciprocable stoppering head.

6. A bottle stoppering 'machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a pair of conduits connected to the opposite ends of said cylinder for respectively and alternatively conducting fluid under pressure to the opposite sides of said piston, valves interposed in each of said conduits, a stem on each of said valves, rotatable cams in contact respectively with the outer ends of said stems, springs surrounding said stems and biasing same against the cams, said cams holding the respective valves closed during the working stroke of the stoppering head.

7. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a valve in said hydraulic cylinder controlling flow through said conduit, and locking means on said hydraulic cylinder for automatically closing said valve during operation of the reciprocable stoppering head.

8. A bottle stoppering machine comprising a fixed support for a bottle, a' reciprocable stoppering head, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston in said hydraulic cylinder connected to the reciprocable stoppering head, a conduit for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder, a valve in said conduit, a distributor con-' nected to said cylinder, and locking means received in said distributor for automatically closing said valve during operation of the reciprocable stoppering head.

9. In a machine of the class described, actuated by an outside source of pressure, a support for a work piece, a support for a tool, one of said supports being movable relative to the other, said other support being stationary, a hy-' draulic cylinder, a piston reciprocable in said hydraulic cylinder, a rigid link connecting the piston to said movable support, a conduit providing communication between said cylinder and an external source of liquid under pressure for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder to move said piston and thereby said movable support, a valve in said conduit for controlling back flow from the hydraulic cylinder through the conduit, and means for automatically closing said valve during movement of the movable support.

10. In a machine of the class described actuated by an outside source of pressure, a fixed support, a reciprocable support for a work piece, a support for a tool mounted on said fixed support, a hydraulic cylinder, a piston reciprocable in said hydraulic cylinder, a rigid link connecting the piston to said reciprocable support, a conduit providing communication between said cylinder and an external source of liquid under pressure I for conducting liquid under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder to move said piston and thereby said reciprocable support, a valve in said RENE: DETREZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

8 UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Miller Jan. 14, 1913 Linsay Nov. 30, 1915 Rieck Jan. 15, 1929 Derby May 27, 1930 Schulenbergv June 16, 1942 Ernst Aug. 18, 1942 

